Where the facts have no argument

Main menu

Sub menu

Drug War

April 21, 2018

(Sun Times Wire) More than a dozen people, including the owner of a Little Village auto body shop where the drug operation ran, are facing charges from a federal investigation into drug trafficking on the West Side. Authorities arrested several of the defendants Wednesday, and seized nearly $60,000 in cash and a dozen firearms,…

July 28, 2017

(Fox 32) Thirteen people are facing drug charges for allegedly helping distribute cocaine, heroin and fentanyl on the city’s Northwest Side and west suburbs. Agents from the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration have investigated the group’s drug trafficking activities since 2015, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office. They seized about…

May 10, 2017

Three people are in jail after Will County authorities pulled over a car and found the trunk held several bricks of cocaine with a street value of more than $1 million. In a news release, the Will County Sheriff’s Department says the discovery happened Monday night after deputies pulled over a car they’d spotted swerving…

April 22, 2017

Chicago Police found “copious” amounts of drugs in the North Park neighborhood home of a man charged with harassing a CPD officer who was leaving court Thursday afternoon. Reggie Catayong, 44, and 42-year-old Jack Artinian allegedly followed the officer in a vehicle as the officer left a courthouse in the 2400 block of West Belmont,…

April 19, 2017

The foundation of the U.S. government’s case against Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, includes a trove of 272 audio recordings which includes secretly recorded conversations with his most trusted operatives from Chicago. The operatives are Margarito Flores and Pedro Flores, twin brothers from the Little Village neighborhood, who are currently in federal witness…

April 17, 2017

A nearly two-year investigation into an alleged heroin dealer on the North Shore has resulted in the arrest of a 39-year-old Evanston man and there could be more arrests coming. Robert Crayton was arrested Friday morning just a block away from an elementary school, and is now facing multiple felony charges for allegedly dealing heroin.…

April 11, 2017

A year-long drug investigation led to the arrest of 19 people and the seizure of more than 190 kilograms of heroin in the Chicago area, federal authorities announced Tuesday. “Operation Over the Top” was led by the DEA, spanned more than a year and resulted in drug charges against 19 people in federal court in…

March 30, 2017

The so-called “Heroin Highway” from Chicago to Kane County is thriving, Kane County Sheriff’s Department officials said in Aurora. “We are getting killed by heroin,” Kane County Sheriff’s Sgt. Aaron Feiza said at a forum in Aurora, calling the current situation a crisis. Dealers from primarily Chicago’s West Side are bringing heroin into the Aurora…

March 7, 2017

MEXICO CITY Gangland-style murders are a daily event in Culiacán, the capital of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, where businesses close early, schools suspend classes and people must take precautions to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. The extradition of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to the United States in January was supposed to curb…

February 11, 2017

Overnight raids broke up a large heroin ring that operated around the corner from Chicago Police Headquarters. Authorities linked the drug ring to the killing of city worker, Yvonne Nelson, last year. The raids were part of a police operation called “Wheel of Fortune.” Police and DEA agents said a turf war over the lucrative…

January 19, 2017

UPDATE Drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who became a legend in Mexico through his dramatic prison escapes and years of staying just ahead of the law, arrived late Thursday in New York after he was extradited to the United States. Guzman will appear Friday in a courtroom in Brooklyn, where he will stand trial…

December 10, 2016

The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) numbers show heroin deaths surpassed firearm-related homicides for the first time ever in 2015. The number of heroin deaths was 12,989 and the number of firearm-related homicides was 12,979. The Washington Post published the CDC numbers, which show the deaths from all opioids combined topped 33,000…

November 23, 2016

Three men are in federal custody after federal authorities seized almost 150 pounds of cocaine and 75 pounds of heroin at an Aurora warehouse, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court. Urbano Arellanes, Jose Raul Perez-Pailles and Adolfo Meraz-Renteria face charges and are accused of agreeing to transport and receive “multiple kilograms”…

October 27, 2016

Twenty-four people have been charged by federal authorities with using Amtrak trains to transport drugs from Los Angeles to Chicago. The indictments allege wholesale quantities of cocaine and heroin, obtained from Mexico and Southern California, were transported from Los Angeles to Union Station aboard Amtrak Express trains, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s…

September 23, 2016

More than two dozen convicted felons and reputed gang members have been arrested in connection with the sale of dangerous batches of heroin laced with the powerful painkiller fentanyl, which led to a rise in drug overdose deaths in the Chicago area, authorities said Thursday night. The roundups, which began earlier in the day, came…

September 16, 2016

James Triplett had his customers lined up around the corner in broad daylight, the feds say. Not for concert tickets. Not for iPhones. For heroin. Now 42 people are facing state or federal drug charges for their alleged roles in supplying and distributing heroin around West Grenshaw and Independence in the North Lawndale neighborhood on…

April 14, 2016

As rampant as the heroin epidemic has become, there is something new and even more dangerous. A drug 80 to 200 times more potent than heroin is showing up all over Chicago. Overdoses from a synthetic form of fentanyl are being reported in most collar counties. Users have been combining heroin and fentanyl for years.…

January 10, 2016

Hollywood blowhard Sean Penn secretly met and posed for grip-and-smirk selfies with murderous druglord Joaquin Guzman Loera — even as the world’s most-wanted fugitive continued to elude authorities in the months after tunneling out of a Mexican prison. “I don’t want to be portrayed as a nun,” El Chapo says in the interview. Nevertheless, to…

July 29, 2015

Heroin deaths are spiking in the U.S., concerning lawmakers who proclaim it an epidemic and public health issue. Between 2012-13, the number of U.S. drug overdose deaths resulting from heroin spiked from 5,900 to 8,200, said Michael Botticelli, director of the White House Office of National Drug Policy Center. “I’ve been with [the] DEA almost…

July 12, 2015

Infamous drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has escaped — for the second time in his life — from a maximum security prison in Mexico. Guzman, a former top boss of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, was last seen at about 9pm Saturday at the Altiplano prison, about 56 miles west of Mexico City. A manhunt…